Thursday, June 21, 2018

Please fence me in (I want to drum with witches)

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When our Tarot Blog Hop wrangler, Joy Vernon, posted the topic for this hop, I had to laugh. “Don’t fence me in” was the exact opposite of what going on in my life.

This spring, my wife decided to use her inheritance from her mother’s death last summer to pay for house and garden repairs and upgrades. One of the things that my wife has wanted for years is a privacy fence. And after many, many years, she had talked me around to her position. If nothing else, I no longer wanted to look at the dead brown knee high grass that my southern neighbor insists on having.

Plus for many years, I have wanted to have “Dark Arts and Crafts” parties. You know—weird artists, indie writers, crazed magicians, and amusing witches, possibly armed with drums and wands—all making noise around a fire pit. One of my entry points into the local occult community was the monthly drummings that a friend of mine (Cassandra Ravenwolf) used to have over at her house. I met my wife at such a drumming. I was heart-broken when Cassandra left town with her husband (Brian) to be closer to her in-laws. And I have waited patiently for some other member of the community to create such an event…but after fifteen years (maybe a touch more), I am out of patience.

So my wife and I are getting a new sidewalk (goodbye Sidewalk of Death), traded our chain link fence for a nice wooden one, new front windows and doors, got the garden sheds painted. Plus I am doing a major purge of stuff I do not need (“Oh look, it is a stack of Rocky Mountain newspapers—didn’t they go out of business ten years ago?”); so far, three whole SUV loads of newspapers have been taken to the recycling center. Plus we are going to be painting some of the inside rooms of the house, building some custom book shelves, and generally organizing the mess.

(Please note that one of the reasons that this is all happening is that I am fairly stable—well, more stable than I was for the first fifty years of my life—on my current round of meds and a pot chaser. Don’t knock my pot chaser—it helps keeps the migraines and panic attacks at bay.)

The work on the outside should be done by the beginning of August. Then I get to switch my attention to Icarus--science fiction—“A thousand people live and work in outer space. They depend on Earth for a supply line. What do they do to survive when Earth goes dark?”—a rather long project that has much in common with eating an elephant “one bite at a time.”

So what the heck does this have to do with the Tarot? (An important question given that this is the Tarot Blog Hop.) Well, after all this is done, a certain amount of ritual and classes will be attempted at my house, and I might be doing some in-person Tarot readings (I hate reading Tarot over the phone and internet). So for the sake of my business (and my wife’s pottery business), we needed a new fence.

"Do you want to see naked witches dancing?"

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Monday, June 18, 2018

Space Force assemble! (Let us mess up that sci-fi novel you are working on)

Coming soon to a reality near you: Space Force!

Do you worry about the Chinese putting military assets in space? Do you worry about aliens showing up from outer space and requesting asylum? Are you worried that you might be replaced by a species with more arms than you have? Are you worried that you might not be able to collect taxes in space?

Never fear--Space Force is here!

Or as I like to call it--a fucking organization that totally messes up the outline of the science fiction series that I am writing. Damn you Mister President.

But let's be honest, shall we?

The American tax payer has no stomach to pay the massive cost of equipping a Space Force. The odds of us having a sixth branch of the military is nil next to none. If America had the will to deal with the massive cost of space exploration and exploitation, we would already have both a Lunar and Mars colony. There is a reason why private businesses are taking over space--and it is because you can't get the elected government of the United States to touch it with a ten foot pole. Maybe if it was a totalitarian government, or we had a smoking gun that China had military assets in space, we would get there--but with our current government? Highly unlikely.

If you don't believe me, consider NASA budget. Does it look like we care about outer space?

Unfortunately, as a science fiction writer, I have to give it some mental bandwidth. What if Trump could actually make it happen? Uh, yes...that would totally destroy the setup for Icarus.

(Basically Icarus is a world with a thousand people and limited resources in space--and no open military presence--there is a military presence, but it is secret and hidden and extremely small. There is no large military presence in the Icarus universe to save the day...which is why my characters are faced with such a big problem when the shit hits the fan.)

Fortunately for me, Space Force looks like it is in the same probability box as building that big beautiful war. Costs will trump the idea that winning space wars is easy. I could be wrong, but I am betting against it happening.

Coming soon to a reality where the Space Force did not happen.

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Are all sex workers liars? (And should they be barred from GD?)

The totally awesome truth that everyone needs to know today is that sex workers, especially porn actresses, have no credibility and should totally be viewed as complete and utter liars. And we know that this is true because the greatest Trump supporters tell us that it is true.

And who are we to question this wisdom?

Oh yeah, I am a sex worker—I am not allowed to question this wisdom, nor am I allowed to defend sex workers. So just ignore everything that I am about to say, and go on with your very honored and time proven double standard of conduct.

Are you still here? What is wrong with you?

For those who somehow missed it, Trump’s uber lawyer, Rudolph Giulani, has come out and said that Stormy Daniels have no credibility because she has worked in the sex industry.

“I’m sorry. I don’t respect a porn star the way I respect a career woman, or a woman of substance, or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman and as a person and isn’t going to sell her body for sexual exploitation.”

(I wonder how he feels about women who marry for money…)

In other words, Daniels is a porn star, and therefore, is totally a liar, which means that the President did not touch her, has never meet her, and would never grab her by the pussy, and we can totally believe this because the President is the greatest American ever!

You know who else has credibility issues? Hint—you can tell when they are lying by the fact that their lips are moving. Yes, that is right—politicians and lawyers.

During the Great Golden Dawn Trademark War, the last great war for the freedom of occult students to pay ungodly sums to leaders who are totally honest, and who have turned out to be uber Trump fans, we learned that sex workers are evil and should not be a part of the Golden Dawn tradition. And we knew this to be true because they had lawyers backing them up. No one with a lawyer ever lies. Well, not if they are conservatives and patriots. If you are a liberal, and therefore automatically a traitor who needs to be hung by the neck until you are dead, you are a liar, especially if you have hired a lawyer. And doubly so, if you are a sex worker.

Exactly who is a sex worker? Is it just street walkers, escorts, and porn stars? Or am I a sex worker? Did writing dubious erotica mean that I was a sex worker? My mom would say yes, and claim that I was in jail because it was less shameful. And all I was doing was making up sexy stories. This is totally grounds to bar me from the society of super spiritual seekers of the occult.

(Oh don’t pretend that it wasn't said about me—I know that it was and who was saying it.)

So let’s bar all sex workers from the occult. Never mind the leaders, and their big dollar donating supporters, who have used their occult groups as a place to pick up sexual partners. Never mind those leaders who brag about sex magic teachings which seem to be the exclusive property of those who will say to you, “Hey baby! How about a little personal tutoring in the mystical arts? Meet me behind the barn, if you want to learn more.” Teaching sex magic does not make you a sex worker…even if I think otherwise.

Yes, let’s continue our double standard, shall we? While we are at it, let’s ignore the fact that our President not only ran a beauty contest, not only gave women number values based on their appearances, bragged that he could grab any pussy he wanted without consequences, and even appeared in three Playboy videos. No, he was not a sex worker. Therefore, we can totally believe him…even if he looked a little pimpy. He was just selling the sex, which it totally fine because he is a man.

Double standard much, you practice.

Double standard much, you practice.